Nature, like yoga, is a clear mirror that reflects our inner capacity for stillness and peace. I was reminded of this truth last month, when after a long and bare winter, I left Vancouver city for a weekend on the southern gulf island of Salt Spring Island, with the intent to “reconnect with nature.”

Sara Avant Stover was a senior in college when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and forced to examine her own disconnection from her body. Her internal examination led her to ask the hardest question of her life: What does it mean to be a happy woman?